The present invention relates to containers, blanks for such containers, easy methods for forming containers from such blanks, and means for economically forming such blanks and containers for protecting particularly vulnerable items such as consumer purchased bread, consumer purchased produce, and/or other consumer purchased food products.
In the ordinary, day-to-day purchase of foodstuffs such as a loaf of bread, all too often the food is crushed by the other boxes and cans of food in the grocery bag and/or the grocery cart. A crushed loaf of bread may be accepted as part of the "price" one pays for shopping these days, but a crushed and leaking tomato requires considerably more patience. Yet shoppers reluctantly accept such accidents as inevitable, and consider them an unavoidable result of grocer's efforts to keep costs to a minimum.
Some foodstuffs are protected by rigid or semi-rigid containers. However, rigid and semi-rigid containers cost more than soft bags, and not all purchasers are willing to afford that extra cost unless there is no other practical way to protect the particular food item.
Not surprisingly, the prior art reveals various efforts directed to certain aspects of protecting foodstuffs and other materials by means of specially designed containers formed from sheet stock. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,343,726 (Jakobson, issued June 15, 1920) discloses a paper cylindrical container, and a blank therefor, having an integral bottom closure member. The cylinder is held in assembled position by a single, protracted locking tongue and slit. A rounded slot is illustrated, which supports the bottom member having an upwardly facing semi-circular cut opposite the attaching fold line. The bottom member is connected to the main body by a long connecting piece which must be folded and pushed inside the container in order for the edge of the bottom member to rest upon the tab formed by pushing the semi-circular cut inward. Therefore, the outsized dimensions required by the long connecting piece are inappropriate to and not cost effective for protecting a loaf of bread, and the tongue and slit arrangement would not provide adequate support for a container of proper, longer dimensions.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,996,997 (Inman, issued Apr. 9, 1935) employs locking tabs which have a slight gap at the tab bases. These secure integral end portions to the main body of the container, the end portions helping to define the shape of the main body. The main body edges are secured by non-cost effective glue or the like, and the container is otherwise very complicated in its folding and assembly. It is therefore not well suited to point-of-use assembly by the end user. Further, the triangular shape, which uses excessive material, is not best for protecting a square loaf of bread, nor optimally resistant to point pressures applied to one of the sides.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,022,601 (McDonald, issued Nov. 26, 1935) shows a liner for produce baskets to prevent damage from contact with the sides of the basket. The liner, which forms into a frusto-conical shape and has no bottom, shows various tab locking arrangements. The tabs illustrated in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, which have flaps facing in one direction only and one internal slot and one slot from the bottom edge of the blank, would have a tendency to become undone unless the liner is supported from the outside by a basket or the like. The tabs illustrated in FIGS. 11, 12, and 13 have a slight clearance or spacing from the body of the blank, but are received in straight slots which give them a tendency to slip out. The tabs illustrated in FIGS. 4 through 10 are complicated and not well suited to point-of-use assembly by the user. In addition to lacking a bottom, the liner's frusto-conical shape hardly follows that of a loaf of bread, and would be very wasteful of materials and of space within a grocery bag.
In U.S. Pat. No. 2,140,932 (Avery, issued Dec. 20, 1938), FIGS. 1, 2, and 3 disclose frusto-conical pots or containers made of leather fiber and having an integral, self-supporting bottom. Being preformed, however, they lack cost effectiveness for the uses envisioned herein, and would occupy too much room when stacked near the point of sale. As with McDonald '601 (above), the frusto-conical shape does not follow that of a loaf of bread, and would be very wasteful of materials and of space within a grocery bag. In addition, one protracted tab and slot along most of the leading edges of a long tube would have a tendency to bow outward causing the tab to slip loose from the slot.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,670,129 (Baxter et al., issued Feb. 23, 1954) shows a preformed and non-cost effective shipping tube with an integral end closure, not a user-assembled container formed easily from a flat blank that can be conveniently stacked for use.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,146,111 (Enoch, issued Aug. 25, 1964) employs a stiffening band of paper which is heat sealed to the sides of a bread wrapper. The band or web of material, which can have printing applied to it, does not provide sufficient protection for a loaf of bread.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,305,161 (Offer, issued Feb. 21, 1967) shows a tubular shell secured by tabs with spaced bases which pass through slits having slightly angled ends. The contents of the shell are visible through the perforations therein. However, the tube which is formed lacks a bottom; the tabs have rounded ends which could disengage more easily than might be desired; and there is no mention of the container being reinforced by its own contents to improve flexibility and economy in the fabrication of the container and blank themselves. In addition, the perforations in alternating straight lines weaken the tubular shell.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,330,671 (Stewart, issued July 11, 1967) has a slightly curved slots and forms a container box which is printed upon. However, it is clearly a complicated design which would not be convenient to fold into shape at the point of sale. Also, the flat sides would provide scant support against externally applied pressures, and gluing the flaps together is not cost effective.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,668 (Paek, issued May 12, 1981) shows a telescoping dispenser, for various produce items, which appears not only complicated in its manufacture, but rather expensive as well.
U.S. Pat. No. D-227,977 (Bish, issued July 31, 1973) appears to provide a rigid protector for bread loaves. This device is evidently formed or formable from a single, die-cut, double folded sheet of material, and is designed for stacking bread on a store shelf, not for protecting it in a grocery cart or grocery bag.
U.S. Pat. No. D-228,882 (Bish, issued Oct. 30, 1973) shows something which is also designed for stacking bread on a store shelf with some protection, and can be formed from a single sheet of material.
Thus, although some concepts for a bread protecting container appear in the prior art, and some concepts for a tubular container formed from a single sheet and having an integral end also appear in the prior art (most of which is either inconvenient or inefficient and/or is not cost effective in its manufacture and sale), the prior art still fails to teach or even suggest a single embodiment encompassing altogether therein those features which will meet the various needs enumerated and discussed above.
A need therefore remains for an economical, convenient, and efficient way to afford each shopper the individual option of protecting selected food items, such as bread and produce, with a minimum of expense and overhead for both the shopper and the food merchant.